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tv   CNN Newsroom  CNN  January 11, 2013 11:00am-1:00pm PST

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have to feel comfortable with it. i will say and i've said to president karzai that we have arrangements like this with countries all around the world. and nowhere do we have any kind of security agreement with a country without immunity for our troops. that's how i as commander in chief can make sure that our folks are protected in carrying out very difficult missions. and so i think president karzai understands that. i don't want to get ahead of ourselves in terms of the negotiations that are still remaining on the bilateral security agreement, but i think it is fair to say from my perspective at least, it will not be possible for us to have any kind of u.s. troop presence post 2014 without assurances that our men and women who are operating there are in some way
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subject to the jurisdiction of another country. >> well, sir, the bilateral security agreement is in mind for the interests of both countries. we understand that the issue of immunity is of very specific importance for the united states. as was, for us, the issue of sovereignty and detentions and the continued presence of international forces in afghan villages and the very conduct of the war itself. with those issues resolved, as we did today, part of it, the rest was done earlier, i can go to the afghan people and argue for immunity for u.s. troops in afghanistan in a way that afghan
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sovereignty would not be compromised, in a way that afghan law would not be compromised, in a way that the provisions that we arrive at through talks will give the united states the satisfaction of what it seeks and will also provide the afghan people the benefits that they are seeking through this partnership and the subsequent agreement. [ inaudible ] >> that's not for us to decide. it is an issue for the united states. numbers are not going to make a difference to the situation in afghanistan. it is the broader relationship that will make a difference to afghanistan and beyond in the region. the specifics of numbers are issues that the military will decide and afghanistan will have no particular concern when we're
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talking of numbers and how they're deployed. afghan press? english speaking press? >> i am correspondent for kabul, afghanistan. i will ask my question in my own language. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> translator: this mission will be hard. will it be resembling the same mission as it was in the 11 years or is there a difference, a different kind of mission? those who are in the pakistan, particularly the safe havens that are in pakistan, what kind of police will you have? thank you.
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>> the mission will be fundamentally different. just to repeat, our main reason should we have troops in afghanistan post 2014 at the invitation of the afghan government, will be to make sure that we are training, assisting and advising afghan security forces, who have now taken the lead for and are responsible for security throughout afghanistan, and an interest that the united states has, the very reason we went to afghanistan in the first place, and that is to make sure that al qaeda and its affiliates cannot launch an attack against the united states or other countries from afghan soil. we believe that we can achieve that mission in a way that is very different from the very active presence that we have had
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in afghanistan over the last 11 years. president karzai emphasized the strains that u.s. troop presences in afghan villages, for example, have created. well, that's not going to be a strain that exists if there is a follow-up operation because that will not be our responsibility, that will be a responsibility of the afghan national security forces to maintain peace and order and stability in afghan villages, in afghan territory. so i think, you know, although obviously we're still two years away, i can say with assurance that this is a very different mission, and very different task, and a very different footprint for the u.s. if we're able to come to an appropriate agreement. and with respect to pakistan and
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safe havens there, afghanistan and the united states and pakistan all have an interest in reducing the threat of extremism in some of these border regions between afghanistan and pakistan. and that's going to require more than simply military actions. that's really going to require political and diplomatic work between afghanistan and pakistan and the united states obviously will have an interest in facilitating and participating in cooperation between the two sovereign countries. but as president karzai, i think, indicated, it is very hard to imagine a -- a stability and peace in the region if pakistan and afghanistan don't come to some basic agreement and understanding about the threat of extremism to both countries
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and both governments and both capitals. i think you're starting to see a greater awareness of that on the part of the pakistani government. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> translator: the question that you have made about -- that we talked about this issue of -- in detail today, about the prisoners, about the detention centers, all of these will transfer to the afghan sovereign sovereignty. the u.s. forces will pull out from villages, will go to their base bases, and afghan sovereignty will be restored. and after 2014.
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we are working on this relations. this relation will have a different nature and will have -- will be based on different principles. it will resemble probably to turkey's or germany. we are studying these relationships and we will do that. >> thank you, mr. president. as you contemplate the end of this war, can you say as commander in chief that the huge human and financial costs that this entailed can be justified given the fact that the afghanistan and the world we leave behind is somewhat diminished from democracy that was prevalent at the beginning of the war. and president karzai, many independent studies have criticized afghanistan for corruption and poor governance.
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do you stand by your assertion last month that much of this is due to the influence of foreigners and are you completely committed to stepping down as president after the elections next year? >> i want us to remember why we went to afghanistan. we went into afghanistan because 3,000 americans were viciously murdered by a terrorist organization that was operating openly and at the invitation of those who were then ruling afghanistan. it was absolutely the right thing to do for us to go after that organization, to go after the host government that had aided and abetted or at least allowed for these attacks to take place. and because of the heroic work
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of our men and women in uniform, and because of the cooperation and sacrifices of afghans who had also been brutalized by that then host government. we achieved our central goal, which is -- or have come very close to achieving our stroll go central goal, which is to decapacitate al qaeda. to dismantle them. to make sure they can't attack us again. and everything that we have done over the last ten years, from the perspective of the u.s. national security interests, have been focused on that aim. and, you know, at the end of this conflict, we are going to be able to say that the sacrifices that were made by those men and women in uniform has brought about the goal that
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we sought. now, what we also recognized very early on was that it was in our national security interests to have a stable, sovereign afghanistan that was a responsible international actor that was in partnership with us and that that required afghanistan to have its own security capacity, and to be on a path that was more likely to achieve prosperity and peace for its own people. and i think president karzai would be the first to acknowledge that afghanistan still has work to do to accomplish those goals, but there is no doubt that the possibility of peace and prosperity in afghanistan today is higher than before we went in. and that is also in part because of the sacrifices that the american people have made during this long conflict.
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so, you know, i think that have we achieved everything that some might have imagined us achieving in the best of scenarios? probably not. you know, there is a human enterprise and you fall short of the ideal. did we achieve our central goal? and have we been able, i think, to shape a strong relationship with a responsible afghan government that is willing to cooperate with us to make sure that it is not a launching pad for future attacks against the united states? we have achieved that goal. we're in the process of achieving that goal. and for that, i think we have to thank our extraordinary military, intelligence and
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diplomatic teams as well as the cooperation of the afghan government and the afghan people. >> sir, on the question of corruption, whether it has a foreign element to it, if i have correctly understood your question, there is corruption in afghanistan. there is corruption in the afghan government, that we are fighting against, employing various means and methods. we have succeeded in certain ways, but if your question is whether we are satisfied, of course not. and on the corruption that is foreign in origin, but occurring in afghanistan, i have been very clear and explicit and i don't
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think that afghanistan can see this corruption unless there is cooperation between us and our international partners on correcting some of the methods or applications of delivery of assistance to afghanistan without cooperation and without recognition of the problems. on elections, for me, the greatest of my achievements eventually, seen by the afghan people, will be a proper, well organized interference free election in which the afghan people can elect their next president. and certainly i will be a
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retired president, and very happily a retired president. >> last question. >> my question to you, mr. president, afghan women fear that they would be the victim of the process in afghanistan. what assurances can you give them that they will not suffer because of that process? thank you. >> well, the united states has been very clear that any peace process, any reconciliation process must be afghan-led. it is not for the united states to determine what the terms of this peace will be. but what we have also been very clear about is that from our perspective, it is not possible
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to reconcile without the taliban renouncing terrorism, without them recognizing the afghan constitution, and recognizing that if there are changes that they want to make to how the afghan government operates, then there is an orderly constitutional process to do that, and you can't resort to violence. the afghan constitution protects the rights of afghan women. and the united states strongly believes that afghanistan cannot succeed unless it gives opportunity to its women. we believe that about every country in the world. and so, you know, we will continue to voice very strongly
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support for the afghan constitution, its protection of minorities, its protection of women, and we think that a failure to provide that protection, not only will make reconciliation impossible to achieve, but also would make afghan -- afghanistan's long-term development impossible to achieve. the single best indicator or one of the single best indicators of a country's prosperity around the world is how does it treat its women. does it educate that half of the population? does it give them opportunity? when it does, you unleash the power of everyone. not just some. and i think there was great wisdom in afghanistan ratifying
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a constitution that recognized that. that should be part of the legacy of these last ten years. okay. thank you very much, everybody. >> so there they are, the two presidents, the afghan president, the american president, wrapping up a news conference. they made lengthy statements and answered four questions between them. most importantly, the president suggesting there is a possibility that the u.s. troop withdrawal from afghanistan could even be accelerated over the next two years, though he's not yet ready to make any final decisions. he's waiting for recommendations from his military leadership. on the same front, he's saying there is no decision made how many u.s. troops will remain in afghanistan after 2014. although he says every u.s. troop who does remain will be required to have immunity from afghan prosecution as a general condition. and we heard the afghan president hamid karzai say, he's
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bankly on board, he will make that recommendation to his people. we'll see what happens, though. there are new elections scheduled for afghanistan next year. and he says he will be a retired president. we don't know, obviously, who will be elected the next president of afghanistan. chris lawrence is our pentagon correspondent. chris, hamid karzai did get something very significant from the president of the united states as far as what he sees as his sovereign right. >> that's right. it is getting the prisons that the u.s. military operates turned back over to the afghans and getting the afghan prisoners turned back other to -- >> prisoners being held by the united states in afghanistan or the other nato allies, they will be handed over to the afghans. >> right. as we reported last night, on "the situation room" and earlier today, our sources were telling us, that was what was very important to karzai in terms of sovereignty. he wasn't as caught up on giving sort of the legal protection to u.s. troops. of course we heard him signal to president obama basically he's
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on board with that, he would get the okay from the afghan people, but in all respects, i think, gloria, you would say he pretty much gave the okay. >> he did. he made it very clear. he said if those issues are resolved, i can go to the afghan people for immunity of u.s. troops. it seems to me that that's clearly the crux of the deal that they were cutting. >> richard haase is with us, the president of the counsel on foreign relations in new york, a former u.s. adviser at the state department to then secretary of state colin powell, intimately involved in the immediate aftermath of the start of the u.s. war in afghanistan back in 2001. richard, a lot of viewers, american viewers, might be confused what hamid karzai is saying about his dialogue taking place with the taliban in doha, qatar, right now. a lot of us thought that the taliban was supposed to be removed from afghanistan because of their protection, support of al qaeda. >> any confusion when it comes
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to afghanistan is both unavoidable and understandable. it is true the taliban government at the time, as you know, gave space to the -- to al qaeda and the united states essentially went to war, not simply against al qaeda, but to remove the government of afghanistan and then again run by the taliban that was allowing them to operate. one of the things that president obama did in 2009 was expand the war aims to go after the taliban itself. not simply because of their connection, directly, to al qaeda, but more broadly. since then, things have evolved and this is where it gets confusing. you do have the talks between the government and the taliban. i'm quite skeptical they're ing to go very far. the taliban are extremely divided. and it is not clear whether they're even sincere about the talks or using them as a tactic. i'll be honest with you. i think at the end of the day, you're going to have the taliban once again have a role in afghanistan, particularly in the south, where they have all the
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ethnic ties. they're going to be part of afghanistan's future. what is not obvious, though, is that the taliban, even after they come back, are going to once again establish a close relationship with al qaeda. it is quite possible that they learned their lesson. what this suggests is you could have an afghanistan which does not provide sanctuary to al qaeda, to any significant degree, but will also be an afghanistan that kind of looks messy, that looks tribal, that has all these ethnic and geographic divisions and in some ways looks quite a bit like the afghanistan before the united states invested this decade of effort. >> did something jump out at you, richard, you watched this afghanistan story for a long time, from the news conference? did you learn anything that surprised you? >> i think the lead is that clearly the president, by mentioning the word sovereignty, i lost count in the midst of the other press conference, clearly was setting the stage and president karzai agreed for
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residual force of the united states to remain in afghanistan beyond 2014. and i think the deal is you have a slightly earlier turnover this spring to afghan lead, you probably accelerate the slope or the glide path of american military reductions, but that's in exchange for the united states keeping some kind of a small residual force going forward. so i think there is something of an arrangement here and the question now is whether the president can make it stick on this end and whether karzai can make it stick on his end, but i think that's essentially the outlines going forward. and that's probably the lead coming out of this. >> you think that free and fair elections next year in afghanistan really are going to take place and karzai will step down and there will be an orderly transition to a new president? >> that would represent many firsts. so i think the idea of free and fair elections, it is not simply, as you know, about election day.
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it is the entire leadup to the process. it is going to be uneven throughout the country. the idea that afghanistan is going to be somehow a normal country or anything proximating or approaching anything of a model is just wildly unrealistic given the divisions within the country, the history of an extraordinarily weak central government, the fact that pakistan continues to provide sanctuary to the taliban and others who are trying to influence or undermine the future of this country, so we have got to assume this is not going to be a textbook case of successful nation building. it is going to go back in many ways to the way it was and no election therefore is going to be something that thomas jefferson would wrap his arms around. this is afghanistan. we have got to -- we have got to be very careful about not getting overly ambitious. >> richard, if someone would have said to you, back in 2001, when the u.s. went into afghanistan to destroy the taliban and defeat al qaeda that
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so many years later, in 2013, there would still be 66,000 u.s. troops in afghanistan fighting this war, what would you have said? >> i would have been wrong because i would have said inconceivable. in part because right after 9/11, when the united states got involved, the bush administration at the time was simply unwilling to make a big investment. there was tremendous skepticism around the national security council table at the time that any amount of american investment, that any effort to nation build in afghanistan, if you will, would bear fruit. people were really skeptical. so the idea that a decade ago we would have -- you would have told me that we would build up to, what, over 100,000 americans essentially at the peak in afghanistan, and a decade later we would have 70,000 troops, we would have lost 2,000 lives, would have spent $500 billion, i would have said that is way more ambitious and a far larger
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investment than the united states was ever prepared to make. i would have been wrong. but this is surprising that the united states has decided to make the kind of effort here that is second only to iraq in recent memory. there was really very little to suggest that we would go this way. >> richard haass thanks for your expertise. thanks to all of our reporters and analysts for joining us for special coverage of the president's news conference with the afghan president hamid karzai. that's it for me. i'll be back 4:00 p.m. eastern in "the situation room." "cnn newsroom" continues with brooke baldwin. first, the nra, then hollywood, now joe biden meets with the folks behind video games. i'll speak with someone live who says games aren't the problem. i'm brooke baldwin. the news is now. win or lose? one miss america contestant will
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undergo a double mastectomy after tomorrow's pageant. plus, wall street is shrinking. why big firms keep handing out pink slips. and countdown to the golden globes. >> leo! >> yours true little be live from the red carpet. one expert tells me what to look for. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] don't just reject convention. drown it out. introducing the all-new 2013 lexus ls f sport. an entirely new pursuit.
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♪ from jammin' jerk chicken, to creamy gouda bisque. see what's new from campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. [ male announcer ] when diarrhea hits, kaopectate stops it fast. powerful liquid relief speeds to the source. fast! [ male announcer ] stop the uh-oh fast with kaopectate. hello. i'm brooke baldwin. happening right now, vice president joe biden is meeting with members of the video game industry to talk about how gun
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violence is represented in popular video games. this is what we're hearing, the white house will push for an assault weapons ban, so games like "call of duty" will probably be part of the conversation with video game leaders. they will deliver recommendations to curb gun violence to president obama by tuesday. we learned that deadline. the president created this panel last month after 20 children were shot and killed in newtown, connecticut. i talked not too long ago with the two young boys who live in newtown, and they dumped their video games, straight in the trash can, for me, after attending one of their friends' funerals. >> we feel that it is negatively affecting some of the minds and feelings of the youth of this nation, and we just wanted to change that. >> this movement that you guys have started, this is called played out, choose not to play.
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i see you have video games next to you. what are you doing with them? >> well, what we're going do with these games is we're going to put them in this container and we're planning to have our local garbage company destroy them. >> all right. stepdad craig, let me ask you, just so i'm clear, this is not something you said to your kids, hey, this is the right thing to do. this is coming from them, right? >> it is coming from them. i think my wife and i had a discussion recently about obviously after the tragic events that this is probably something to consider taking out of the home. and i think the kids got the message and they decided to universally pick up all the mature violence games and max came up with this brilliant idea, and we thought maybe this is something that can catch the attention of other kids and other communities. i don't think that there is any one of the parents or brothers or sisters or uncles who could play one of these games who has been recently victimized.
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and this is a way that we are standing by them and i think it is a way that the country -- >> let me be crystal clear. police have not linked video games to that newtown suspect. want to bring in video game expert and georgia tech professor ian bogust. welcome. you heard about the two young boys. there they were, chucking their video games, in honor of this young person they lost and thinking that they shouldn't be playing these games. are they tossing their games -- should they be tossing their games? >> they should be doing what they feel best doing in this time of crisis and aftermath. i think what they're really responding to is the idea of the representation of violence at this moment. video games as such, though, are so much bigger than just a couple of titles. if we think about the idea of -- >> how do you mean? >> if you think of video games rather than a couple of titles and rather as an entire mass medium that does lots of different things, akin to the
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way television does lots of different things, drama, comedy, news program, video games are like that. there are more games that are more like action movies and there are more games that are more like distractions or doodles, there are games used for education, health care, for business. games do so many different things. that's the most important thing to recognize and a decision to respond to violent media more generally has nothing in particular to do with video games. >> there is this worry that is out there that these games somehow create, lead to, make young people more prone to violence. but, again, there is zero evidence that that is happening. a lot of people are probably watching now who play these games saying that's bs. but the worry is there when you look back at the columbine shooters, they played this game called "doom," back in the day, the first person shooting, using hammer guns, uzis, et cetera, it was violent. how do you answer the worry out there now? >> so a lot of people play video games. almost everybody these days plays video games.
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hundreds of millions of people play games on their phones, on their computers, games are just a mass medium. they're a thing that everyone does, like everyone reads magazines. if we look at particular people playing particular games who also have complicated backgrounds and are troubled, then it is really no surprise. it would almost be like asking you, well, do you have a magazine in your bathroom or do you have television in your den? of course i do. >> quickly, the fact we know senator rockefeller, jay rockefeller is calling for an investigation, going after these games, investigation into these video games, you know, 20 seconds, is he wasting his time? >> it is a political move. it is a way of saying, look at me doing something. i'm addressing what people perceive to be a concern, whether it is a concern or not. >> okay. professor ian bogust, georgia tech video game expert, thank you for coming in. i appreciate it so much. now to school staffers are now getting credit for helping to end a school shooting attack in california. taft union high school in bakersfield is closed today while this student remains in
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critical condition. our affiliate kget reports his name is bowie cleveland. the sheriff says cleveland and another student were targeted because the shooter believed they bullied him. yesterday, the 16-year-old gunman fired not once, but twice in the science classroom. two other students and a teacher also suffered minor injuries. the teacher, ryan heber, is now credited with coaxing the young gunman into putting the shotgun down. his co-worker kim fields helped distract the shooter so students could then get out. >> this teacher and this counselor stood there face to face, not knowing whether he was going to turn the shotgun on them, and -- because they have seen the news media throughout our country in the last several months, and they probably expected the worst and hoped for the best, but they gave their students a chance to escape and conversed and it worked. >> the sheriff says the student used a shotgun, he took from a
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sibling. taft union high school does use an armed guard, but he was snowed in yesterday and was not able to get to school. the number of children dead from the flu is up nationwide. the cases of the illness are down in some parts of the country. at least that's the word we have gotten today from the cdc on what is turning out to be one of the worst flu seasons in years. dr. sanjay gupta here back today, back talking flu. we have the cdc report out from a couple of hours ago. tell me the worst is behind us. >> we're sort of in the middle of it right now. i wish i could say the worst was behind us, but we got some encouraging news today, but, you know, it is a single sort of data point in time. it is one week. we want to find out is over a few weeks do the numbers continue to go down. as you mentioned, five states went from high levels of flu activity to more moderate. four other states went up. we're kind of a wash right now. look at the map. there is only three states that don't have widespread flu activity right now. they're not really close to each other, mississippi, california,
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and hawaii. the point really, brooke, the flu is here and it is just about everywhere. so protection is still very important. >> you mentioned protection. waking up this morning, reading the papers, headlines are vaccine shortage, vaccine shortage. what do you do if you can't get the shot? >> i think there are some spot shortages, meaning when you have enough of the vaccine but got to make sure it is in all the right places in the country where people need it. your particular pharmacy, if it doesn't have it, there are probably other pharmacies in your community that do. let me give you a broader view. look at the numbers overall of how many doses there were, 135 million doses manufactured. that's the amount they think are going to be needed here in this country, not everyone gets one, but that's the numbers in the past. take a look here. 128 million have been distributed. and of those, this is an encouraging number, 112 million have actually been used. if you do the math, i did it, 16 million doses are still sitting in pharmacies across the country. another 7 million ready to go. there is also a few hundred thousand doses of the nasal
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spray, as well, that stuff is available, expires at the end of next month. so they'll be available. >> if, here's the if, if someone is sick now, what do you tell that person? what is the best and quickest way to beat it? >> it is -- there is no quick way to beat this. even with medications, even if you go to the doctor, it is just -- it is the flu. >> let it run its course. >> it is a severe one this year. we have seen it before. the average length of not feeling well is about seven days. got to go home, got to get rest, it sounds simple. let your immune system build up, don't get dehydrated, take plenty of fluids. one other little quick caveat, people take tylenol or acetaminophen to take down the fever, check the ingredients. if you're taking tylenol and cold medicine and something else, you can build up a lot of acetaminophen into your system quickly. make sure you're not overdoing it in that regard. it has been around since we have been around almost, and, you know, it has got to run its course. >> people are sick, thank you,
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studio crew, for scrubbing down the mouse. you have to be careful. everything you're touching, washing your hands. >> stay home. not just for yourself -- >> for the rest of us. >> i do it for you, brooke. i would stay home for you. >> thank you, dr. gupta. sanjay will have more on the flu outbreak this weekend. this next one this is quite a story. win or lose, one miss america contestant plans to undergo a double mastectomy after tomorrow's pageant. even though she doesn't have breast cancer. my next guest made the very same decision saying it was a, quote, no brainer. we'll find out why next.
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what if you found out the gene responsible for killing your mother, your grandmother, and your great aunt was living within you? this is ellen rose. she is miss d.c.
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tomorrow night the 24-year-old will be taking the pageant stage, hoping to become the next miss america. here's the thing. she doesn't have breast cancer. but she has decided that she will have both of her breasts surgically removed. rose has a genetic mutation which means there is a good chance she could develop the disease. and this kind of preemptive double mastectomy is on the rise in the u.s. women who watch their family members suffer and die of breast cancer not wanting to take any risk of developing it themselves. my next guest is maggie smith, she is a mom, she is a wife, soldier, marathoner, maggie inherited this gene, known as brca-2. she decided to have both of her breasts removed and undergo a full hysterectomy. maggie, welcome. >> thank you. >> before we talk, you shared a photo with us, so i just -- so we can share it with those watching, but a quick warning, you're about to see maggie after her double mastectomy. let's show it.
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maggie, this is you after your surgery. you were cancer free. so explain to me why you wanted to do this. >> i had -- my mother has been battling breast cancer for about a little over 20 years now. she is in her third actual physical battle right now. my aunt passed away from the disease. my aunt chris. my great aunt passed away from ovarian cancer. and after my mother realized the second time she had breast cancer, she was tested for the brca genetic mutation and she came up as being brca-2 positive. about five years later i was given the opportunity to be tested myself, and over those five years i had debated whether what course of action i was going to take -- >> did you pause, maggie, let me jump in. was that something that you -- that's a test to find out if you have the gene. take a minute to think about. >> after i got the test, it took
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about a month until i decided and i was in surgery, but over those five years i had thought about it. there is a lot that goes into it. a lot of women define themselves as a woman by their breasts and breasts are part of what makes up their image of themselves as a woman. i'm an athlete. i am a soldier. i wear a uniform. and then i, you know, i'm a mom and i have my daughter to think about, my husband was extremely supportive, and was not worried about it. >> he was? >> yeah, he's very supportive. he still is, and we have -- i think he's glad with the decision i made. it was -- it is a burden to bear to know you carry that gene and not do anything about it. >> i can't imagine. and i was just curious if there was any kind of recommendation as far as, you know what do people in the medical community say if you say someone in your family or you have this gene. we reached out to the medical unit and they say for women with this brca-2 gene, the surgery to
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remove breasts reduces the risk. and just, again, to your story, not only did you have your breasts removed, hysterectomy, maggie, is major surgery. >> yeah. >> major. why take it that far? >> i kind of decided that i would do the whole shebang. >> the whole shebang, she says. >> i did it -- my hysterectomy took place on my 30th birthday. >> happy birthday to you. >> it was. it was the start of a new life, i guess. but it erased a lot of the worries -- i had seen a lot of pain come out of cancer. and it is overall i don't think it is worth it. i took what i did. i have a daughter. and she's amazing. emily is 4, and she's a doll. and we didn't want to have any more children. so we were done with that portion of our life. you can have an oopherectomy
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which is just removing the ovaries. >> if someone is in a similar situation as you what would you advise to them? >> get as much information as you can. i try and put myself out there as a resource. i work with an organization called force, which is facing our risk of cancer empowered. and you can find them online. but they present you with the resources that you need to be able to make an informed decision. for me, this was my right decision. for somebody else, it might be increased monitoring or increased surveillance type thing. it is really individual. >> maggie smith, thank you so much. our best to your mother. >> thank you. yes. thanks. as joe biden meets this hour with the video gamemakers, his meeting with the nra did not go so well. jay thomas has thoughts on where the gun control debate is heading. he's next, back in 60 seconds.
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happening right now at the whou white house, another gun control meeting. vice president joe biden is meeting with representatives of the video gaming community. the folks behind productions such as this one "call of duty." take a look. fps stands for first person shooter. that's the name of this genre where the gamer is the gunner. according to all kinds of experts, games such as these have zero, zero connection to mass killings such as the massacre at sandy hook school, which ignited the current discussion on guns and gun violence. jay thomas, emmy award winning actor, sirius radio talk show host, welcome back to the show. good to see you. >> thank you. >> let me read something that i
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read here from a psychologist. this is christopher jay ferguson, writing after the sandy hook massacre, writing in "time." there is no good evidence that video games or other media contributes, even in a small way, to mass homicides or any other violence among youth. on the other hand, let me mention this, you have senator jay rockefeller leading this charge against the industry. he wants an investigation into video game violence. jay thomas, where do you come down on this? >> you know, forget where i come down on it, i have three boys and they are from 19 to 30, and they play these video games all the time. i think it is all lip service because it is so much money involved. i mean, "call of duty" did a billion dollars like in a matter of months. and so it will all be lip service. one thing they can do -- >> who is doing lip service? >> well, the -- even vice president biden or the president
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or whatever. nothing much is going to be done. on my show i talked about automatic weapons. by the way, i have a son who is a master gunsmith also that doesn't care about automatic weapons, but he said, dad, any pistol that you have is an automatic weapon, you don't have to have a machine gun. anything you can pull the trigger fast enough, you're going to kill people. maybe in the video games and i think they might be doing this, don't show a gun and how to load it, and how to put a super mag in it. maybe have the guns that they used to have in the video games that were almost fantastical type of weapons. but they're showing, you know, ar-15s, how to load them. in some video games, they're advertising the gun, how the gun works. >> is that taking it too far? >> i think so. it has become an advertisement for the gun industry. i think the gun industry will give that up because the videomaker at the end of the day probably doesn't care about it. >> back to your point about lip service and the gun industry
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here. you know as well as i do yesterday, big meeting at the white house, you had the vice president telling the nra the public mood post sandy hook is shifting and in support of new gun restrictions. today we have the news that the president will seek passage of an assault weapons ban. do you think that the president, about to begin here term number two in office, is he going to be having to go to the mat with the nra? >> of course. and, you know, excuse me, but 75% of americans believe they have the right to own a handgun. and a handgun with a hairpin trigger and i've shot them and they're frightening, can put off as many bullets as you want to. so let's say they won't allow the machine gun looking rifle gun. okay. and then they'll move on. and the children have died. and two kids have thrown their video games away, but you just have too many people in our culture and it is too much of a
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young male culture, i might add. the research, by the way, on young children, i remember when my boys were little, the more video games they watch, the more, you know, problematic they would be between themselves. i think you have a cutoff age. i think you have a cutoff age. sure, my older guys are not going to go hopefully mass murder people, but among little kids, yeah, i don't think they should be watching violent video games. >> i'm moving past the video games. the fact that a lot of these gun groups were at the white house yesterday, the nra, you know, basically saying, let me quote them from yesterday, we were disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the second amendment. obviously, this is tough, right? the gun folks and the white house are going back and forth. here you hear the president saying, you know, yes to an assault weapons ban. do you think that will fly? >> this entire discussion is like the worst marriage anybody's ever been in. you and your spouse and i mean, same sex spouses too, because i believe in that also, it --
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they're just not going to settle it, ever. you can say all day, dig up thomas jefferson and dig up george washington, show them -- >> you don't think sandy hook changed things? >> no. >> no? >> among people that already were predisposed and some that might be on the fence, but i think that in states where gun and gun rights are important, i don't think a thing has changed. they're just blaming it on, oh, some nuts have caused discomfort and so they're going to blame it on the gun lobby. i will say this, it is more difficult to get mental help for young people than it has ever been in the united states. and that's -- >> that's something else they have been talking about. >> i'm telling you now, a lot of these kids needed a lot more help than throw some pills down their throat. it is a problem. it will all be lip service. something will be passed. and the argument will continue. and i will say this, they should be pouring money into helping kids who are in real trouble with emotional and mental
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problems and spotting them in school and somehow getting them -- i mean -- >> i got to go. love talking to you. we will continue this another day. >> thank you very much. >> thank you so much. sirius radio talk show host jay thomas there. now to the glitz and the glamour, the nominations, not talking about the oscars, we're talking about the golden globes this sunday. coming up next, gray drake, she's back. she's going to tell me what to look for. sand a choice.thritis n take tylenol or take aleve, the #1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors. just two aleve can keep pain away all day. back to the news.
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we now know who got the nod for an oscar nomination. let's talk about sunday. big party in los angeles. the golden globes. i want to bring in gray drake from l.a. gray, welcome back. how are you? >> hello. i'm doing great. i'm so excited for this weekend. >> i'm excited as well. and, you know, you talk to people who describe the golden globes, they say this is the really fun show, right? this is film and television, ton of fun. what are you looking for? >> well, the golden globes are like a fun precursor. you're absolutely right. they have a reputation because they're run by the hollywood foreign press association, which is noted for its whimsy, especially for everybody that they nominate. there is a ton of interesting
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people, and the very important factor of alcohol being served at the ceremony. >> which makes the speeches all the more interesting. all the more interesting. >> definitely. >> the hosts, i have such a girl crush on tina fey. i read her book twice. you have tina fey, amy poehler. are you as excited as i am? >> i'm more excited. these two women are so great. i want to form a girl rock band with them. and i think they are so spectacular that they're going to do a bangup job. two of the funniest women working in the industry today, i think it is just going to be spectacular. >> they both are nominated. so we'll have to see if they're able to battle it out for the win, for their individual shows. if you, gray, if you were on the glamorous red carpet, who would you look for? what is the one question you would ask? >> oh, man, the one person i would look for is mr. ewan mcgregor, nominated for his film because i have a feeling that
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seeing him walk down that red carpet would be the equivalent of seeing a unicorn in the wild. >> a unicorn in the wild. >> he -- >> how so? >> yes. he is just a majestic amazing creature, such a talented performer. i've been a long time fan of his. i'm sure you couldn't tell. and the red carpets are really tricky, though. you said what question would i ask. and sometimes you only get a chance to ask one question, right? you got to make it count. and because everybody is in such a good move for the ceremony, they're so looking forward to a cocktail in just a minute, i would like to, you know, see who they want to beat up the most in order to win their particular award like make it a grudge match. because, for instance, two nominations for "django unchained" supporting actors, i pit them against each other and see who they think would win in a fight. >> it would make for interesting tv, that's for sure. we don't want any bruises on
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leo, i suppose. gray drake, thank you. we'll be watching for the show. golden globes, 8:00 eastern here. gray, thank you. we'll be right back. i'm up next, but now i'm singing the heartburn blues. hold on, prilosec isn't for fast relief. cue up alka-seltzer. it stops heartburn fast. ♪ oh what a relief it is!
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i'm brooke baldwin. an outburst of anger today inside this colorado courtroom after a judge delayed the arraignment for the man charged with murdering 12 people inside that aurora, colorado, movie
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theater. in fact, the father of one of the victims shouted for alleged gunman james holmes and i'm quoting him, rot in hell. jim spelman was inside that courtroom in centennial, colorado. tell me, what was the atmosphere once that was shouted? >> reporter: well, first of all, brooke, these family members sat in court and listened to three days of detailed testimony about what the prosecution alleges is this deliberate preplanning by the us suspect james holmes gung down their family members. the emotions ran high all week. this was the last time they would have a chance to see him for at least a couple of months. and it was, like, this man let out what everybody in the courtroom had been thinking, rot in hell, holmes. his daughter gunned down in the theater. he was surrounded by people who went through similar things. they don't have an active voice during this. i think it was a lot of frustration over the last five,
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six months pouring out in the courtroom today, brooke. >> you mentioned they wouldn't be seeing him in a couple of months. do we know when holmes is expected to enter a plea? >> reporter: yeah, that will be in march. he'll be officially arraigned and expected to enter a plea sometime between now and then. we may hear about a competency hearing to determine whether he's mentally capable of going forth with a trial at this point down the road. they'll have to decide whether they pursue an actual insanity defense if it gets closer to a trial. >> jim spelman in colorado, thank you. we'll take you back to that story in a moment. i want to get back to the white house, just within the past hour, president obama announced he'll be scaling back america's military mission in afghanistan. but not cutting and running. standing right by afghan president hamid karzai, the president said the united states will achieve its mission. >> at the end of this conflict, we are going to be able to say
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that the sacrifices that were made by those men and women in uniform has brought about the goal that we sought. >> wolf blitzer joining me now, live from washington. and, wolf, u.s. forces will shift this spring into an advisory role in afghanistan. that's the word we heard from the president today. does it look to you as though we're getting out faster than we thought? >> he said that there is a possibility of an acceleration. remember, just to give some context, brooke, there is 66,000 u.s. troops on the ground in afghanistan right now, part of a much larger nato operation. all u.s. troops are supposed to be out of afghanistan by the end of 2014. in other words, another two years and they have been trying to work out the drawdown schedule. they had a schedule in mind. the president said, though, over the next several weeks he'll be consulting with his commanders on the ground including general allen in afghanistan and see if they can accelerate that
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withdrawal a bit. but i think it is fair to say that most of the u.s. troops will be out in the course of this year, early next year, and certainly by the end of 2014. having said that, the president is leaving open the option of retaining a u.s. military presence in afghanistan after 2014. and there have been suggestions maybe 3,000, 6,000, 9,000 troops as advisers, as trainers, assisting the afghan military. he seemed to get some good words from the afghan president hamid karzai today, brooke, that u.s. troops would only stay in afghanistan if they had immunity from prosecution and hamid karzai did seem to suggest certainly was open to that, spoke about how the u.s. troops are -- the potentially could have the kind of immunity. remember, the iraqi government refused to give u.s. troops immunity and as a result there are no u.s. troops in iraq right now. >> and in terms of the u.s. troop presence, just yesterday, an administration sort of raised
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this idea of possibly bringing all, all of the troops home, which sort of sounded like a negotiating tactic. and i just want to play a little bit more sound, wolf. this is the president, again today, essentially negotiating with karzai, in the public. >> from my perspective at least, it will not be possible for us to have any kind of u.s. troop presence post 2014 without assurances that our men and women who are operating there are in some ways subject to the jurisdiction of another country. >> so, wolf, with regard to negotiations here on a post 2014 troop presence, who wants what? >> i think they both want hamid karzai and president obama want a limited, very limited u.s. troop presence in afghanistan, maybe 3,000, 6,000, 9,000, whatever that troop presence is, provided they can reach an agreement on the legal status on
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the troops. hamid karzai may not be around thoerk though. here is one of the issues that could be on the agenda. there is supposed to be elections in afghanistan next year. he says he's not going to stay on, he wants to retire as president. he's been in office now for more than 10 years as the president of afghanistan. he's been the only president of afghanistan since 9/11 back in 2001. i don't know who the next president of afghanistan is going to be. i know that the afghan government of hamid karzai is talking to the taliban in doha, qatar, and, remember, this gets really complicated and confusing because the u.s. went to war in afghanistan to deal with the taliban, to get rid of the taliban, which was protecting al qaeda and bin laden and gave them sanctuary there from which they could go ahead and plot attacks against the united states like the attack on 9/11. so it is going to be a messy situation. i think it is fair to say there are a lot of uncertainties.
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will it in the end have a very, very positive ending? i'm not so sure it will. i hope it will. but because of the u.s. sacrifice in blood and treasure has been enormous but anyone's guess right now what is going to happen in 2014. i'm not sure what is going to happen in 2013. >> i hope it will as well. and, wolf, you know as well as i, this is a busy day in the white house. not only the president meeting with his counterpart from afghanistan, but the vice president, again, these listening sessions, meetings when it comes to potential gun policy. and we have just gotten some video here of the vice president meeting with these video gamemakers at the white house. let's take a listen. >> let me begin by thanking you all for being here. i know a lot of you came a long way and i know a lot of you have an awful lot you got to manage and a lot on your plate. so thank you. secondly, i just want you to know what we have been doing and then maybe we can have a longer
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and a larger conversation. as a consequence of what i think we all agree is an innocent attack that shocked the conscience of the american people unlike anything i have seen or felt and we have been around a long time, all the time i've been in public life there have been a number of tragedies that have occurred and national catastrophes, but i never quite have seen anything that has shocked the consciousness of the american people like 6 and 7-year-old kids being rittled with bullets in a classroom neighborhood, in an area that was considered to be immune to this kind of behavior and had done everything that seemed logical and able to be done to protect children in that school.
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and so the president asked me because i had spent so much time on these issues relating particularly to guns and violence in my years in the senate, whether or not we would and admittedly it is quick, and in a matter of less than a month put together a set of proposals or direction that we could move the federal government, that would enhance the possibility that -- or lessen the possibility of this kind of thing could happen again. we know that it is -- there is no silver bullet, there is no -- as one of my friends said, no seat belt you can put on to make sure that we will not be in this circumstance again. but i ask the cabinet to come together, the attorney general, the homeland security, the
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department of education, health and human services, et cetera, because we know this is a complex problem. we know there is no single answer. and quite frankly we don't even know whether some of the things people think impact on this actually impact on this or not. and so i want you to know you have not been, quote, singled out for help, but we have asked a whole lot of people. let me give you a sense of the meetings we had so far. we met with the law enforcement community, which has obviously one perspective. and we met with -- there is a wide range of those, and they don't always agree. on everything from weapons to preventative action that can be taken. >> vice president joe biden there, sitting around a round table in the white house, final day here of discussions with different groups, talking about curbing gun violence.
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and he made a good point saying, basically, look, it is a complex problem, not trying to point the finger at the video gaming industry per se, but he was discussing this issue with them there at the white house, and just to keep you updated, we now know the vice president will be proposing these certain ideas that will have for the president, that deadline will be tuesday. now to this, the flu. the cdc announcing today that two more children have died from this widespread flu outbreak. it has been hitting all but three states, three states in the country. you see all the red there on the map? that total deaths here of kids nationwide now at 20. all of this from an illness that often needs just tlc to get a child through. so when does the flu cross the line from a sick day to a serious health danger? elizabeth cohen has the signs to watch out for. elizabeth? >> brooke, kids are especially vulnerable to the flu. and parents really need to be
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vigilant. i spent the day yesterday with the mom who got her son help in the nick of time. darius carr is so sick with the flu, he's in the hospital. he could have died if not for the quick thinking of his mother. robbie carrie was keeping a close eye on her son at home. he didn't seem all that sick, then suddenly wednesday night -- >> he could hardly breathe. he was, you know, gasping for, you know, breath, and that was real scary because i thought he was going to pass out at any minute. >> reporter: robbie immediately brought her 7-year-old son to the emergency room. it is just a short drive away, but by the time they got there, darius was incoherent. how did you feel in your heart when your own son didn't know who you were? >> you don't want to think the worst, but as a parent you can't help it. >> reporter: the flu had struck darius hard. his asthma making it even worse. doctors had to give him oxygen. looking for red flags like robbie did can save your child's
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life. difficulty breathing, getting better, then sick again, a sign that a second infection has set in, and refusing to drink. and a red flag darius' mom noticed, extreme fatigue. but sick kids are usually lethargic. >> for a while. and then usually they'll perk back up. >> reporter: if there is no perking up -- >> no perking up is a problem. >> reporter: kids with the flu can get very sick, very fast. so when in doubt, get your child to a doctor. i can't imagine if you hadn't brought him in. >> that's what i don't even want to think about. i'm just so glad that i did, you know. follow that mom instinct and bring him in right away. that may have saved his life. >> reporter: brooke, last week this children's hospital behind me had more than 400 confirmed cases of the flu, and that's just one hospital in one week. the flu is still out there, it is not too late to get your child the flu shot, so they don't end up here in the first place. brooke?
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a new warning about the pill that millions of americans take to fall asleep. i'll tell you the real threat behind ambien. i'm brooke baldwin. the news is now. a shocking report about the secret life of tv star jimmy savile. why investigators say he spent every waking minute as a predator. plus, a lawyer representing the graffiti artist accused of vandalizing a picasso calls the case her worst nightmare. and they're armed with clubs, machetes, and guns. the race is on in the hunt for pythons.
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back to the angry outburst in a colorado courtroom today after a judge delayed the arraignment of alleged movie theater gunman james holmes. one victim's father shouted out today, rot in hell, holmes. victims' family members and people wounded in the shooting have been in the courtroom all week long for what basically has been a preview of holmes' trial. i want to bring in clinical psychologist dr. paula bloom.
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paula, good to see you. >> good to see you too. >> just the idea of these family members, of those who were killed, and the survivors, sitting in this courtroom, however close to this man, running through the details, learning new things possibly of how people were killed, is that helping them or hurting them? >> i think it really depends on the personality, who you are and what you bring to the situation has an impact. i want to take a quick step back, brooke. to me, this isn't necessarily a mental health thing or psychological thing. this is the question we have been asking for thousands of years as people, which is why do bad things happen to good people? so you're sitting in that courtroom -- >> can you answer that question? >> you can't. there is no good answer. spiritual leaders, theologians, psychologists how do you answer the question to something horrendous. you go to the movies in the suburbs and somebody opens fire and kills you, injured you, kills your family member. >> supposed to be a safe place. >> supposed to be a safe place. it violates our whole world order. it didnoesn't bring your family
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member back, but what it does for some people, if they're in the courtroom, it helps them have a sense, if something bad happens, there is a consequence for that. and some of the relief comes from this feeling that, okay, there is some degree of order in the world. >> so you have this person shouting out, rot in hell which proves your point, and speaks to this big underlying message. and then also as i pointed out, you know, there are survivors in the courtroom as well. they were reacting to this outburst today, take a listen. >> i didn't know exactly what the outburst was. i thought just a scream or maybe crying. when i found out it was rot in hell, james holmes, i was surprised. >> is it hard to hold your tongue during the procedures? >> me, personally, no, i did not want to get in trouble. he could get into a lot of trouble for what he did today, but he had his daughter die. >> so what is your reaction to that? >> my reaction is, okay, we're human beings, but we're also animals. okay. what distinguishes us from animals is the ability to
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override an impulse. >> you want to yell obscenities at the person that killed your loved one. >> you can't always control it. sometimes the ability -- what that man said, he didn't want to get in trouble, the ability to know there would be a consequence for what you're about to say, and being able to keep it down, is an ability many of us have, but sometimes things are so overwhelming that we just think what we feel. we just say what we feel, we cannot, it is beyond our control, probably why it is a good idea that family members are not in juries, they have a certain role to play, but they're not the ones doing -- in the justice system because, you know, we can't be trusted to get rid of our emotions. we shouldn't. we're human beings that have been affected. >> we'll talk again once this goes to trial and all the people are sitting in the courtroom and i imagine it is just like this horrible wound that keeps getting reinjured and reinjured. dr. bloom, thank you very much. the jet of the future, they're calling it, plagued with problems. boeing's president responds to critics about the 787 dreamliner. richard quest has thoughts. he's next.
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♪ ♪ we're lucky, it's not every day you find a companion as loyal as a subaru. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. with multiple lacerations to the wing and a fractured beak. surgery was successful, but he will be in a cast until it is fully healed, possibly several months. so, if the duck isn't able to work, how will he pay for his living expenses? aflac. like his rent and car payments? aflac. what about gas and groceries? aflac. cell phone? aflac, but i doubt he'll be using his phone for quite a while cause like i said, he has a fractured beak. [ male announcer ] send the aflac duck a get-well card at getwellduck.com.
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recent troubles pushing the faa to investigate the dreamliner. >> i believe the aircraft is safe and what we're seeing are issues associated with bringing any new technologically advanced product into service. and we want to address all of those issues to ensure that people can feel confident flying this airplane. >> no wonder confidence was shaken nearly every day this week, the 787 had some kind of problem. today, all nippon air ways in japan found an oil leak in an
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engine and a crack in another plane's cockpit window. wednesday, same airline had to cancel a flight because of an error message on the brake system. tuesday, the dreamliner leaving boston, had to stop takeoff because of a fuel leak. and, monday, another japan airlines plane in boston had an electrical fire. still, federal officials say this. >> i believe this plane is safe and i would have absolutely no reservation of boarding one of these planes and taking a flight. >> richard quest, let me bring you back here as we talked earlier in the week about the different issues with the dreamliner and now we know about this, you know, review on the electrical system. what do you make of this? had to be done? >> yeah, absolutely. there is simply too many little things and snags and glitches and even though there may be no more than in previous cases, we have now got to the stage, you
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know. as journalists we often call it the stage of dog bites man. it is where you have one case and then you have the next and then even though there may be no more than normal, suddenly everybody is reporting them, and you sort of see more of them and it seems as if just wherever you look, there are dogs biting people. and so it is with this plane. there are 50 of them also in service. it seems like every day there is another -- these are little minor glitches which by and large do not endanger or threaten the safety of the aircraft. that is the core point to remember. for boeing, i know you're going to -- you're going to say, what do you mean, a fuel leak and a fire? >> yeah, all these little minor glitches, all these dog bites, what is boeing saying about all of this? >> i've followed boeing for many years. and their planes are absolutely superb. but this will be an embarbsm t embarrassment for the company
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because the probe is looking into the design, the manufacture and the assembly. and what boeing has done with the 787 is revolutionized it. a different way of designing, casher fib carbon fibers, what is being shown is something went slightly awry in this process. >> so how do they prove to the consumer it is okay to use? >> i think because the bar is set i have hee. very high. there is a huge difference between a valve here, a brake light there, as what we call something that will put the aircraft on the ground, that will cost the airline money. and anything that might endanger flight. and the other crucial thing to remember, brooke this is why in some ways it is so difficult, there is no commonality between what we have seen between an electrical generator, and a fuel leak pump, and a valve and a cockpit window. what it says is that maybe that the boeing needed to have been
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tighter in the way they assembl aircraft. that's what the probe, the investigation will look into. i'm going to join the secretary of transportation and say this -- >> yes. >> you buy me the ticket, and i will board the 787 tonight going anywhere in the world, crossing the atlantic, crossing the pacific. that plane is safe. it is a nuisance for the airlines, for the passengers delayed -- >> but it is safe. >> and it will be seriously expensive for boeing. >> you're in. richard quest, thank you. ambien, a pill many, many americans take to fall asleep. now, a new warning suggests a threat. i'm about to get the real story from a sleep doctor here. plus, folks are gearing up to hunt them with machetes and clubs and guns this weekend. wait until you see this.
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bottom of the hour. i'm brooke baldwin. if you take a pill to get a good night's sleep, check with your doctor. there is important new information today about the most popular sleep medicines. the food and drug administration says women should be taking half as much ambien and other pills containing the same ingredient. the recommendation follows years of complaints of people still being drowsy the morning after they take these sleeping pills. the fda says it has about 700 reports of impaired driving in people who have taken this drug. and there are a number of reports of people driving and eating and texting, even having sex without remembering it. wow. dr. carol ashe, director of sleep medicine with meridian health. dr. ashe, that's a lot of things not to remember because of this pill. have you seen this yourself? >> yeah, brooke. it sure is. and unfortunately there is 60
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million prescriptions written a year for sleeping pills. 40 million of which for a drug which the fda put the recommendations out abt. and, you know, meridian health, where i'm at, we have known about this and most sleep doctors have been reducing the dosages so this is just proving to us what we already knew, that water is wet. it is a problem. >> so it is zolpadin, the active ingredient in the pills that is doing this. why does it apparently cause these kinds of reactions in people? >> well, we're not exactly sure why we're seeing this delayed response. we're looking at, you know, particularly in women, their body mass size is smaller, and also female metabolism is different. so we're seeing a greater response in women than men. but this is a long known side effect that many of the sleeping pills, sedative hypnotics, they will -- they're sedating you and altering your ability to respond. so they impair critical thinking. and they're going to impair your ability to drive. and as you're suggesting, zol d
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zolpidem has been known to cause these behaviors. >> if you pop an ambien the night before and you're driving the next morning, it affects your driving hours later? >> yes, unfortunately. and you may not even have an awareness of it. you may appear to be fully awake and think you're fully awake but parts of your brain are not engaged in the driving process. it is a problem. so people go out on the road and they'll drive and they'll get into accidents and it is because of a consequence of the drugs and the drugs still being in their system when they get up in the morning and get on the road. >> so, then, doctor, what are people supposed to do. there are a lot of people through the who have a tough time sleeping, they need help. >> people are desperate for sleep. there are solutions for this. unfortunately we have two problems. society doesn't recognize what they need to be doing and how important sleep is. lifestyle, what we do, you know, we push the envelope, think sleep is for wimps, we can do all these crazy things. we need to get better sleep habits, number one. keeping a regular bed time, and keeping the environment for
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sleep conducive to sleep, but in addition to that, doctors are getting very little education on sleep. and they're not addressing the sleep the way they need to. and so unfortunately when patients come to see physicians, what happens is they'll dispense sleeping pills and never get at the root cause. so if you get at the root cause, you can help a patient solve these problems and sleeping pills were never meant to be used for more than four to six weeks. after four to six weeks, you really want to be transitioning off the pills and using other modalities to help you sleep. >> that's scary to think of the things you can forget if you take this pill. so many people take it. dr. carol ashe, thanks so much. >> thank you for having me, brooke. hundreds of amateur snake hunters from all over the world are heading to the florida everglades. they have machetes. they have guns. this is the first competition of its kind, folks, it's a python hunt. for one month here, a contest starting tomorrow, drawn in 500
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people, more than a thousand bucks up for grabs for the person who catches the most pythons, or the longest python. john zarrella, who is often on the space beat, and apparently the python beat as well, let me just say, i never say never, i am never doing a python story, john zarrella. you, my friend, are. what is up with all the pythons in florida? >> reporter: i can't believe you called me an amateur after all the pythons i hunted in florida over the years. i was going to say, brooke, here say list of all the people that have signed up, some from georgia, some from new mexico, ohio, there is people from just about everywhere around the country who are coming down here among those 500 people who have signed up. i know your name is not on the list. >> negative. >> reporter: first of all, let's let the viewers know a couple of things. pythons are an invasive species. they have been ruining the everglades for probably a decade now. nobody is quite sure exactly how they got out there, there is some speculation that during
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hurricane andrew that a lot of snake places actually were destroyed during andrew and all those breeding areas, the snakes got into the everglades. another way they're getting there, people who had them as pets and they got too big, they can get to be 17, 18, 19 feet long -- >> why do you want that as a pet? >> reporter: and they couldn't handle them. so they put them in the everglades and the pitheythons the everglades. have no known predator, except the alligators and they haven't been too successful. the python hunt starts tomorrow, the contest, a month long. and, you know, this is not a fishing tournament. you're not coming in with stringers of fish. i've been on these before. and in the last big one they had a few years ago, no one caught a single python in a month. >> what? >> reporter: they're not that easy to spot. you got to hope for cool weather. when they like to come out and sun themselves in the warm afternoon on the roadways. we have had such warm weather down here, brooke, that the
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chances of them even being out where you're going to see them is slim to none. so it is definitely a challenge to find these pythons for these people that are hunting them. we'll go out there with them tomorrow -- >> i know you will. hang on. let me get this in, because this is what peta said, peta's side of things. when pythons are beheaded, they can suffer up to an hour before they die. they ask hunters to limit the ways pythons can be killed to where the brain is destroyed immediately. that's what peta says. you have fun with the pythons this weekend. we'll watch from afar. okay? >> reporter: you got it. >> thanks, john. appreciate it. still ahead, a strange weather event in australia turning heads worldwide. look at these pictures. what is this? what is behind the wall of red here? also, the lawyer for a graffiti artist accused of vandalizing a picasso painting says this case is her worst nightmare. you got to hear this.
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isurprise...it's eating less. to losing weight. i'm hungry just thinking about it. thank goodness for new slimful. one delicious, 90-calorie slimful and a glass of water, like before dinner, helps keep me satisfied for hours. so instead of this much, i only need this much. and slimful tastso good... i don't even miss dessert.
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slimful and a glass of water... eating less is a beautiful thing. on the case today, a romance that started in high school ends with gunfire in a parking garage in dallas, texas. 41-year-old ferdinand smith is in jail today. he's charged with murdering his estranged wife. police say smith shot karen cox-smith several times tuesday as she was walking out of work at the university of texas southwestern medical center. ferdinand smith and karen cox were high school sweethearts, but apparently they had a long history of domestic violence. criminal defense attorney drew finley back with me today on the case. and so, from what i understand, reportedly there was an existing
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felony warrant out for this guy, domestic violence assault charges. so why was he even on the streets and this close to her? >> well, we see this in domestic abuse cases. those of us that do these cases we think of the cycle of abuse. we see the contrait staite stag loving stage, the tension and then the explosion. what happens is usually the victim when things are going well, and the person is contrite and seeking forgiveness, they forget the ability to quickly transition to explosion. and unfortunately that's what happens here. and the longer the relationship sustains, they get through that tension stage pretty quickly and move through that contrite stage pretty quickly and it ends up pretty violent like it did here. >> as we mentioned, you look at the court documents, this couple had a long history of domestic violence. you've dealt with domestic violence cases. what advice do you give people who find themselves in these situations. how do you protect yourself? >> i see it no different than somebody who san alcoholic or drug addict that goes to na or
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aa. there are groups of people to reach out to. when somebody goes to doe midwe domestic abuse counseling, somebody can tell you not to do it. >> what about a potential victim, you walk around in fear and hope no one comes to find you? >> we have to look at the system, brooke. i've been involved in these cases for well over 20 years. what started out as temporary protective orders and restraining orders, looking to protect spouses and boyfriends and girlfriends has grown out of control. i've been to court for domestic violence calendars, seeing two guys at a gym that are fighting, i've seen cuzzeousins that are g it. the system has gotten so inundated we have gotten away from the true victims and true perpetrators. >> picasso fan? >> sure, of course. >> i am a picasso fan as well. pay attention to this one. a this houston graffiti artist
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accused of defacing a picasso painting, at a houston museum, turned himself in after months and months on the run. remember this cell phone video here? this was posted on youtube. here someone is spray painting a bowl and the word conquista on the painting last june. he confessed, explained why he did it. the lawyer in this case, i want to quote him, calls this case a criminal defense attorney's worst nightmare. how do you defend this? >> well -- >> on video. >> it is a nightmare for the following reason. it is not like you're going to get what is called jury nullification where the jury ignores the facts because they feel for this person. maybe like a battered woman that kills her husband and the jury feels bad for her. no one is lining up in the streets of tijuana or acapulco cheering this guy on for his cause, let alone in texas. he's all by himself. i think what the attorney is thinking of, he said we may have to go to trial, i want to
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explain this, is that in texas, it is a unique state in that in noncapital cases like this, you can elect to have jury sentencing. and i think he's hoping, he knows there will be a guilty verdict, to get to a jury and say, look, the guy is kind of messed up in the head, but please don't send him to jail for ten years. >> go nice on him. >> go nice on him. >> sorry about the painting, but go nice on him. ali velshi goes off on washington as the political bickering wreaks havoc on business and jobs. l, i didn't r. see, i figured low testosterone would decrease my sex drive... but when i started losing energy and became moody... that's when i had an honest conversation with my doctor. we discussed all the symptoms... then he gave me some blood tests. showed it was low t. that's it. it was a number -- not just me. [ male announcer ] today, men with low t have androgel 1.62% (testosterone gel). the #1 prescribed topical testosterone replacement therapy, increases testosterone when used daily.
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ya. alright, another one just like that. right in the old bucket. good toss! see that's much better! that was good. you had your shoulder pointed, you kept your eyes on your target. let's do it again -- watch me. just like that one... [ male announcer ] the durability of the volkswagen passat. pass down something he will be grateful for. that's the power of german engineering. ♪ back to you. from new york, i'm ali velshi. what partisan debates underscore is a broken process in washington. and dreamliner gets scrutiny at boeing. it is clear that uncle sam's biggest issue is his wallet. it has been years since your federal government had a real budget, there have been some political stunts to make it seem like budgets were failing in
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congress, bills that were put forward for up or down vote, but that is not how it works. there has never been a budget passed that way and there probably never will be because that's not how the system is designed. christine romans joins me from the cnn money newsroom. cut through the misinformation out there, set us straight. if the government was working properly, how would we get a budget? >> it is a complex process and it starts with the president. by law, the commander in chief is the one who is required to submit a budget proposal to congress before the first monday in february. since the constitution grants the power of the first note to congress, decisions are up to it. once the proposal gets to congress, budget committees in the house and senate work with public officials and other congressional committees to decide on a budget resolution. and that's where is it starts to get interesting. it serves as a guide for all spending and revenue decisions for the year. that's how it is supposed to work in theory. none of this, ali, has happened since 2009. >> we'll discuss why.
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thank you very much. why don't we have a budget? gridlock, basically. senate majority rieder harry reid, a democrat, says it was not worth trying to go through the process of passing the president's budget. that's why you hear that old republican saw that harry reid won't even present a budget to the senate. you may have also heard the often repeated claim that president obama's budget was struck down in the house and the senate, getting zero votes, goose eggs from either parties. those bills were not the budget. they were shell versions of the president's budget put forward by republicans, designed to fail. they were not budgets, they were just politics. republicans did put out their own budget plan in the form of paul ryan's path to prosperity, but bipartisan bickering resulted in no progress there either. part of the reason our government has been able to survive without a budget is because of something called continuing resolutions, which are essentially an extension of the existing budget. it is not true as many of you enjoy tweeting me that the u.s. doesn't have a budget.
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we just haven't had a new one in some years and that is a bad thing. it is also not true that president obama's budget got no votes because that wasn't his budget. we don't have a new budget in the united states and there are consequences for that, not the least of which are the dozen or so close calls with government shutdowns in the past few years. we'll probably face another one of those in the coming weeks. plus, those continuing resolutions, well, they're short-term. they avoid tackling long-term problems like federal debt and the deficits. the uncertainty of that short-term thinking wreaks havoc on businesses and their investment and unemployment. finally, it has been a nightmare of a week for boeing and its 787 dreamliner. a series of mechanical glitches on the airliner are being looked at by u.s. authorities. ray lahood announced a review into boeing's dreamliner by the federal aviation administration. >> -- will cover the critical systems of the aircraft
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including design, manufacturing, and assembly. through it we will look for the root causes of recent events and do everything we can to ensure these events don't happen again. >> those recent events include a japan airlines dreamliner filling with smoke on monday after landing at boston's logan airport. and after passengers had already disembarked. on tuesday, another jal dreamliner in the same airport had to be towed back to the gate because of a fuel leak. on wednesday, an all nippon air ways dreamliner was grounded before takeoff because of a systems error message in the cockpit. these incidents aren't necessarily related, but boeing executives say they got extreme confidence in the 787. now the u.s. government wants to make sure it has as much confidence in the dreamliner as boeing does. i've taken a couple of flights aboard these new dreamliner 787s and they're sweet. no question about it. it is the first commercial jet made from lightweight composite
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material that include carbon fiber. they're expensive, $200 million a pop and like other new commercial jets in the past there are going to be kinkz and hiccups that need to be worked out as airlines fly them. i'm not afraid to get on a dreamliner flight. it is still safe to fly compared to driving my car on the highway. but, boy, this is an embarrassing week for boeing. make sure you watch us for more in depth coverage. tune into "your money" saturday 1:00 p.m. eastern, sunday, 3:00 p.m. eastern. that's it for me. same time on monday. i'm out.
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. weather in australia. it's known for being extreme. we have been telling you about those fires that is still burning through the country's southeast but now we have this. take a look at these amazing pictures. on the western side of australia. there's a huge red wall of dust caused by a cyclone. chad myers is here, as always, to walk us through pictures of this. it was caused by the kite clone but the kite clone was far away? >> yes, the cyclone, typhoon, hurricane, same thing but different ocean. different direction because it's in the southern hemisphere. irrelevant. on the outside, the outer bands that we talk about, one had a pretty good thunderstorm and one thunderstorm put down this gust front that we call that.
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and the gust front just blue all of blew this dust into the sky. the dirt is red. just like sometimes you can can get colored tornadoes over red dirt, this was a red wall of dust. >> it is a wall. it is a wall. do we know how high that is? >> that would be from the base of that shell cloud to the ground, almost 2,000 feet, it could be that high blowing that dust in the air. we know about the drought and heat that australia has had. can you imagine driving your car through that and not knowing. >> look at that dad and his kid. >> get in the air filter to the car, it's going to be a mess there. we're talking -- can you imagine wearing contacts and trying to get the dust out. >> stunning pictures. >> just crazy out there. >> chad, thank you. >> you're welcome. and does the thought of neuroscience make your head spin in one company taking the complicated science taking it down to a basic level in the
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name of education. i went to detroit. all it takes is some wires and some roaches. >> one of the things that we say all the time is that we're changing the world. we feel this way very passionately, what we're trying to do is change neuroscience education. i'm a neuroscientist and i co-founded backyard brains. >> what exactly is backyard brains? >> backyard brans, it's a dyi, do it yourself company. bring the science down to the most basic forms so that everyone is understand it. so what we're going to do today is listen in to how neurons communicate with each other. so we're going to do that not on our bodies but we're going to do it with insects. >> with some roaches. i don't know. >> this is like a fear factor episode. we're almost up to 100 high schools but i'm greedy. we want that across all of the
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country. we don't just want one kid. we want all the kids. >> quite the story, greg gauge there. we hope you check out the full story, "backyard brains" on "the next list" on sundays at 2:00 p.m. thanks for letting me tag along. the event that draws tech enthusiasts from all around wraps up. hd tvs, not just any hd tv, this next generation known as 4k delivers resolution four times better than what is on the market. say good-bye to those glasses. it looks 3-d to the naked eye. ♪ i'm bringing sexy back >> new video that suggests that justin timberlake has a bit of
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an announcement about his future. ♪ a hybrid? most are just no fun to drive. now, here's one that will make you feel alive. meet the five-passenger ford c-max hybrid. c-max says ha. c-max says wheeee. which is what you get, don't you see? cause c-max has lots more horsepower than prius v, a hybrid that c-max also bests in mpg. say hi to the all-new 47 combined mpg c-max hybrid.
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...so as you can see, geico's customer satisfaction is at 97%. mmmm tasty. and cut! very good. people are always asking me how we make these geico adverts. so we're taking you behind the scenes. this coffee cup, for example, is computer animated. it's not real. geico's customer satisfaction is quite real though. this computer-animated coffee tastes dreadful. geico. 15 minutes could save you 15 % or more on car insurance. someone get me a latte will ya, please? we replaced people with a machine.r, what? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it? hello? hello?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello?
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ally bank. your money needs an ally. some of the hottest stories in a flash. rapid fire, roll it. after three decades in the senate, jay rockefeller will call it quit next year. the west virginia wes democrat
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will not seek re-election to a sixth term. he considering running for president back in 1992 but then chose to endorse bill clinton. we are minutes away here from the "closing bell" and wells fargo raking in the dough. wells fargo lucrative mortgage business is dropping the profits for them. and now this. >> a billion dollars. >> you have seen his face a lot in the news lately. social network, just got married but a new video suggests that justin timberlake is ready for a change. >> i've only done two albums in ten years. what does the next decade mean for me? >> this